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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
Notes
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A novel in verse form.
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Dedication: To the glory of God
Affiliation Notes
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Writing Disability in Australia:
Type of disability Unspecified mental illness, likely autism. Type of character Secondary. Point of view First person.
Contents
- Wie Fred und ich Fredy Neptune schrieben How Fred and I Wrote Fredy Neptune, Thomas Eichhorn (translator) single work autobiography (p. 505-512)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also sound recording.
Works about this Work
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'If You're Different Are You the Same? : The Nazi Genocide of Disabled People and Les Murray's Fredy Neptune
2020
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Genocide Perspectives VI : The Process and Personal Cost of Genocide 2020; (p. 69-86)'Murray explicitly centred his thesis on the roots of genocide in his second verse novel Fredy Neptune, which he wrote between 1993 and 1997. The book is the first person narrative of Fredy Boettcher, beginning in 1914 when he is 19-years-old, and covering the next 35 years of his life. Fredy is an autistic Australian man with German parents, who acquires a physical impairment when he is 20 as a result of witnessing mass murder during the Armenian Genocide. The novel also features a significant minor character called Hans, an intellec-tually impaired young man whom Fredy kidnaps in 1933 from Germany and brings back to Australia, so that Hans will not be forcibly sterilised by the Nazis. This paper identifies and explores the arguments advocated in Fredy Neptune with respect to the genocide of disabled people.' (p.72)
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Narrative Histories and Postcolonial Perspectives in Les Murray's Fredy Neptune
2016
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Literary Form as Postcolonial Critique : Epic Proportions 2016; (p. 33-68) -
The Killer of Modern Times : Les Murray’s 'Fredy Neptune'
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Textus : English Studies in Italy , May-August vol. 27 no. 2 2014; (p. 67-90)This essay explores the reasons why Les Murray's five-book novel in verse Fredy Neptune may be considered a masterpiece of crime fiction for undermining the norms that traditionally codify that genre. The norms regulating especially the detective-story are here seen as epitomising the narcissistic principles that have predominantly shaped mainstream Western art and ideology since the dawn of modern times and strongly impacted upon the course of European history both within national and colonial territories. It is, in short, this entire Western episteme that Murray's novel questions through its 'misuse' of crime fiction, as its German-Australian protagonist gets involved in the two World Wars and becomes a German or a British spy depending on the war-line he happens to find himself. This essay first lays bare the critical framework through which I have looked at Murray's novel; then it points out the way it interweaves with Shakespeare's second Henriad but especially with Woolf's fiction opening a dialogue with these crucial texts of early and late modernity; to then conclude by trying to see what formal connections Fredy Neptune may finally have with the genre of crime fiction. [Author's abstract]
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Poetic and Rhetorical Figurations of Touch in Les Murray's Fredy Neptune
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Anglistentag 2013 Konstanz : Proceedings 2014; (p. 291-299) -
The Unnaturalness of Narrative Poetry
2013
single work
criticism
— Appears in: A Poetics of Unnatural Narrative 2013; (p. 199-222)Brian McHale investigates the unnaturalness or artificiality of narrative poetry. More specifically, he analyses William Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis as well as Les Murray’s Fredy Neptune to show that artificial segmentation functionalizes and semanticizes nonsemantic patterns, such as rhyme, that are irrelevant and even inaudible in unsegmented prose. Furthermore, artificial segmentation occasionally coincides with narrative segmentation, enhancing and amplifying it. Sometimes, instead, it cuts across segmentation, setting up counterrhythms, syncopating and counterpointing narrative shifts. In any case, by introducing a series of minuscule gaps and interruptions, artificial segmentation jars us out of our automatic (or “natural”) attitude toward such a narrative. For McHale, artificial segmentation counters the template of natural narrative with a competing unnatural one.' (Authors introduction)
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Aber das Leben ist zu gross
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Die Welt , 3 April 2004;
— Review of Fredy Neptune 1998 single work novel -
Irrfahrt in wahnsinnigen Zeitlauften
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Neue Zurcher Zeitung , 23 March 2004;
— Review of Fredy Neptune 1998 single work novel -
Specht erkundet Busch
2004
single work
review
— Appears in: Die Tageszeitung , 25 March 2004;
— Review of Fredy Neptune 1998 single work novel -
Robes, Tat, Rig, and Scunge
2000
single work
review
— Appears in: The New Republic , 12 June 2000; (p. 52-54)
— Review of Fredy Neptune 1998 single work novel ; New Selected Poems 1998 selected work poetry -
Tall Tales and True in Chapter and Verse
2007
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australian Literary Review , May vol. 2 no. 4 2007; (p. 12-13, 27)
— Review of El Dorado 2007 single work novel ; Lawrie and Shirley, The Final Cadenza : A Movie in Verse 2006 single work novel ; Fredy Neptune 1998 single work novel 'Australian poets are leading a revival of the ancient art of the verse novel, a genre as user-friendly as movies that deserves a wider readership.' (Editor's abstract) -
Fredy Neptune Goes to War
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Journal of Australian Studies , no. 73 2002; (p. 67-77; notes 232) -
Transmuting the Black Dog : The Mob and the Body in the Poetry of Les Murray
2002
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 16 no. 1 2002; (p. 19-24) -
'Split Belonging' in Les Murray's Novel in Verse, Fredy Neptune
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Imagining Australia : Literature and Culture in the New New World 2004; (p. 332-352) -
Narrative Poetry: Ancient to Modern
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Five Bells , Spring vol. 11 no. 4 2004; (p. 10-14) Sheppard considers the demise of narrative poetry among modern poets. However, he is gladdened by some outstanding proponents of the form, notably Les Murray and Dorothy Porter. -
Narrative Poetry
2004
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Five Bells , Spring vol. 11 no. 4 2004; (p. 15-18)
Awards
- 2005 winner Preis der Leipziger Buchmesse — Translation For Thomas Eichhorn's German translation.
- 2004 winner Premio Mondello (Italy) — Foreign Author Received for the 2004 English/Italian edition by the Italian publisher Giano
- 1999 winner Queensland Premier's Literary Awards — Best Fiction Book
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cAustralia,c
- Europe,
- Africa,
- South America, Americas,
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cUnited States of America (USA),cAmericas,
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cJapan,cEast Asia, South and East Asia, Asia,
- 1910s
- 1920s
- 1930s
- 1940s